How do I use Java getters and setters with a collection of data without explicitly typing out the attributes for each item?

Question

I am very new to Java and to programming in general, and I have an assessment to complete where I load employees (with name, age, and department attributes; department can be only one of four enumerated values) into a program that will sort them by age and tell if the age is a prime number. The assignment requires Company, Department, and Employee classes. I am confident that I can figure out age/prime components — I know how to google for algorithms. What I am struggling with is putting all the discrete pieces into a cohesive whole.

Here is what I have so far. I've put in one employee, but the way I'm doing it seems completely inelegant and inefficient. I am sure there is a better way, but I've hit a mental block.

EDIT: as was pointed out below, I was unclear. What I am asking help with is populating the data structure.

Company class:

public class Company {

static Employee one = new Employee();



public static void main(String[] args) {

    one.setName("Counting Guru");
    one.setAge(55);
    one.setDepartment(DepartmentList.ACCOUNTING);


}

}

DepartmentList class:

import java.util.EnumMap;
import java.util.Map;
import java.util.Set;
public enum DepartmentList {
ACCOUNTING, MARKETING, HUMANRESOURCES, INFORMATIONSYSTEMS;




public static void main(String[] args) {
Map<DepartmentList,String> 
enumMap=new EnumMap<DepartmentList,String>(DepartmentList.class);
enumMap.put(DepartmentList.ACCOUNTING, "Accounting");
enumMap.put(DepartmentList.MARKETING, "Marketing");
enumMap.put(DepartmentList.HUMANRESOURCES, "Human Resources");
enumMap.put(DepartmentList.INFORMATIONSYSTEMS, "Information Systems");

 Set<DepartmentList> keySet = enumMap.keySet();
 for (DepartmentList department : keySet) {
     String value = enumMap.get(department);
     System.out.println("ENUMMAP VALUE:"+value);
 }
}

}

Employee class:

public class Employee {

String empName;
int empAge;
DepartmentList empDept;


Employee() {

}

public String getName() {
    return empName;
}



public void setName(String name) {
    this.empName = name;
}



public int getAge() {
    return empAge;
}



public void setAge(int age) {
    this.empAge = age;
}



public DepartmentList getDepartment() {
    return empDept;
}



public void setDepartment(DepartmentList department) {
    this.empDept = department;
}

public Employee(String empName, int empAge, DepartmentList empDept){

}


}

I also have a Department class, but it's currently empty.

Am I on the right track? Can someone give me a nudge? Thank you!

Are you asking how to avoid writing getters and setters by hand? — Louis Wasserman, Oct 23 '13 at 23:41
I _think_ what the OP is requesting is a way to populate his data structures without hard-coding a large number of setter calls. I would suggest reading the data from a file instead. — Jim Garrison, Oct 23 '13 at 23:46
@JimGarrison thank you, that is exactly what OP (she!) meant. Louis Wasserman: sorry, I was unclear. I was talking about populating the data structures. I just didn't have the right words. — thatpaintingelephant, Oct 23 '13 at 23:51

Adrian Ber · Answer 1 · 2013-10-24T00:00:29.973

1

If you're asking if there is something like a property in Java, no, there isn't (at least not yet). If you're asking how to populate your objects something like an IOC container, like Spring, would be a better choice.

Now as it comes to your code you have two main methods in two different classes. Only one will be called. If you want to create a static instance you will be better do

static Employee one = new Employee("Counting Guru", 55, DepartmentList.ACCOUNTING);

or

static Employee one = new Employee();
static {
    one.setName("Counting Guru");
    one.setAge(55);
    one.setDepartment(DepartmentList.ACCOUNTING);
}

When it comes to the enum then you'll better define a constructor for it

public enum DepartmentList {
    ACCOUNTING("Accounting"), MARKETING("Marketing");

    private String displayName;

    public DepartmentList(String displayName) {
        this.displayName = displayName;
    }

    public String getDisplayName() {
        return diplayName;
    }
 }

In the Employee constructor you need to assign the field values to the ones received as arguments.

edited Oct 24 '13 at 00:00

answered Oct 23 '13 at 23:54

Adrian Ber

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Thank you for your response! I googled that and it looks like it offers more sophistication than I need. I am working with a list of only 13 items. I'm applying for a seat at a Java training program, so I just want to show that I know there is a better way than hard coding each list member's setter/getter individually. Does that make sense? I apologize if I'm not using the right terminology — I'd never even looked at Java until about 4 days ago, so I feel like I'm treading water in the deep end. EDIT: just saw your edit. That is so helpful, thank you! – thatpaintingelephant Oct 24 '13 at 00:01
1

Spring is just an example of IOC. There are others more lightweight. And one of the reason behind IOC is not to hard code these values. – Adrian Ber Oct 24 '13 at 00:06
Oh, I see now. Thank you, I will definitely do some more research. – thatpaintingelephant Oct 24 '13 at 00:07
1

Other ways of avoiding hardcoding is to use XML mapping, like JAXB. – Adrian Ber Oct 24 '13 at 00:07

score 1 · Accepted Answer · answered Oct 23 '13 at 23:56

Don't hard-code the data inside the Java program. Put the data in a file and write methods to load the data.

If you MUST hardcode the data in the program, use something like this sample:

public class Employee
{
    String name;
    int age;
    public Employee(String name, int age)
    {
        this.name = name;
        this.age  = age;
    }
    // getters, setters, etc.
}

In the main program

private static Employee[] empData = 
{
    new Employee("John Smith", 50),
    new Employee("Fred Jones", 25),
    .
    .
    .
};

Now you have a static array of Employee objects that you can "load" into your data structure.

Many thanks. The assignment specifies that they want the list of employees to be in the Department class, which seems strange to me, but I don't know enough yet to question these things. Your response helps immensely. — thatpaintingelephant, Oct 24 '13 at 00:06

How do I use Java getters and setters with a collection of data without explicitly typing out the attributes for each item?

2 Answers2